Healed Hughes heads to Hampshire

Phillip Hughes is going back to England to state his Ashes case after recovering from a dislocated shoulder. Hughes, the New South Wales opener, has started full-scale training but his time with the local side will be short after he agreed to finish the county season with Hampshire.

"I am fully fit and just need time in the middle and this is the best course of action for me now," Hughes said in Sydney. Hughes, 21, required surgery on his left shoulder after a damaging boxing session in May and the injury ruled him out of the Test tour to England to face Pakistan. He would have been the spare batsman in that squad, but the spot went to Usman Khawaja.

Hughes has given up boxing training - for now. "I love it, maybe I will continue it again one day," he said. "But just not yet."

In his seven-match Test career Hughes has experienced extreme peaks and troughs, including twin centuries in his second game and being dropped after two matches of the 2009 Ashes. He has added a couple of appearances since then as a replacement for Simon Katich and Shane Watson, and blazed to an unbeaten 86 off 75 balls in his last innings.

"I want to dominate this season and dominate more than I did last season and the year before," he said. "I want to make a statement in all three forms of the game. I don't just want to average 40 or 50, I want to reach the 70-80 mark and if I can do that then everything else is out of my hands."

He could be part of the Ashes series if Watson is shuffled down the order, but that depends on whether the selectors remain faithful to the out-of-sorts Marcus North. Australia's next Test engagement is in India in October and Hughes should be involved in the squad.

Last year Hughes had a short stint with English county Middlesex to fine-tune ahead of the Ashes. The move was criticised by England supporters - especially when he scored 574 runs in five first-class innings - but the experience did not help him during the opening two Ashes Tests.